McElroy: Reaction to MLB new rule changes in 2019 and 2020

Does MLB new rules get a "Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down?"

There will be only one Trade deadline on July 31. Players can still be placed on waivers and claimed but no trades will be allowed after that date.

The All-Star Game Voting will change and will be conducted in two rounds.

There will still be the only voting of old which will be followed by a late June or early July “Election Day” where the top three vote-getters at each position in each league will be voted on by fans to see who is the All Star voter.

Also should the game go to extra innings, the 10th inning -- and all innings will begin with runner on second base. ( I love this idea in Minor League Baseball and the All Star Game. Not in the regular season)

The Home Run Derby: Prize money for the HR Derby will include $2.5 million dollars as prize money with the winner receiving $1 million.

This is nice but fans won’t care about prize money unless the big names like Trout, Harper, and Stanton participate.

It would be great for baseball had one marquee name like Trout start to call out his buddies and challenge them publically.

There’s no pressure like public pressure.

Mound Visits- the max. number of mound visits per team will be reduced from six to give per game. This rule started last year, however, by reducing the trips by one, they are trying to speed up the pace of play and put a little more strategy in the game.

There’s enough down time in baseball and communications between manager and players, getting five timeouts/substiutions is a fair allotment.

The other change that will be monitored is inning breaks.

As per MLB.com, inning breaks will be “subject to discussions with broadcast partners, inning breaks will be reduced from 2:05 to 2:00 in local games and from 2:25 to 2:00 in national games. The Commissioner’s Office retains the right to further reduce the breaks to 1:55 in local and national games for the start of the 2020 season.”

Baseball has many ideas to increase pace of play but the only way they’d ever significantly cut down games is shorten commercial breaks and between inning breaks.

CHANGES EFFECTIVE IN 2020

Active roster provisions: The roster size from Opening Day through Aug. 31 will increase from 25 to 26

The 40 man roster for September will be no longer, rather all clubs will carry 28 players

From MLB -The number of pitchers a club can carry on the active roster will be capped at a certain number, to be decided by the aforementioned joint committee. To adhere to that rule, clubs will have to designate each of their players as either a pitcher or a position player prior to each player’s first day on the active roster for a given season. That designation cannot change for the remainder of the season. Position players will not be allowed to pitch except in the following scenarios:

• They are designated as a “Two-Way Player.” A player can only qualify for this designation if he accrues at least 20 Major League innings pitched and at least 20 Major League games started as a position player or designated hitter (with at least three plate appearances in each of those games) in either the current or the prior season.

• Extra innings.

• In any game in which his team is losing or winning by more than six runs when he enters as a pitcher.

Three-batter minimum for pitchers: will require that starting pitchers and relief pitchers must pitch to either a minimum of three batters or to the end of a half-inning, with exceptions for incapacitating injury or illness.

(Just wondering-do we see any pitchers take a flop and fake an injury or illness to get out of an inning?)